PatMetheny
The jazz guitarist who made improvisation sound like wide-open landscapes
Pat Metheny
The jazz guitarist who made improvisation sound like wide-open landscapes
Pat Metheny grew up in a musical family in Lee's Summit, Missouri, just outside Kansas City. His father and grandfather played trumpet, and he started on trumpet too, until seeing the Beatles on television around 1964 turned him toward guitar. Given a small Gibson ES-140 at twelve, he took in Wes Montgomery and Miles Davis records and was soon playing clubs around Kansas City. As a teenager he decided that copying Montgomery was disrespectful and began looking for his own voice.
He was teaching at the University of Miami and Berklee while barely out of his teens, and in 1974 he joined vibraphonist Gary Burton's band. His 1976 debut, Bright Size Life, a trio album with Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses, introduced a light, singing tone and a fresh harmonic sense. In 1977 he founded the Pat Metheny Group with keyboardist Lyle Mays, and their partnership went on to define a warm, cinematic kind of jazz that reached audiences far beyond jazz clubs.
Through the 1980s the Group grew more ambitious, and the guitar synthesizer on Offramp won their first Grammy in 1983. Brazilian rhythms and wordless vocals shaped First Circle, Still Life (Talking) and Letter from Home. Metheny also went in harder directions. Song X, his 1986 collaboration with Ornette Coleman, was fierce and free, and he recorded in trios, duos and solo. He toured with Joni Mitchell, played on David Bowie's This Is Not America, and wrote film music.
The Group's last studio statement, The Way Up (2005), was one piece more than an hour long. Metheny then took on projects like Orchestrion (2010), for which he played a stage full of mechanically driven instruments, before forming the Unity Band with saxophonist Chris Potter. Later records include From This Place and Road to the Sun. He has won 20 Grammys in 10 different categories and was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2018.
The 10 greatest Pat Metheny solos
- 1Pat Metheny Group · solo by Pat Metheny · 1982
- 2Pat Metheny · solo by Pat Metheny · 1976
- 3Pat Metheny Group · solo by Pat Metheny · 1978
- 4Pat Metheny Group · solo by Pat Metheny · 1987
- 5Pat Metheny Group · solo by Pat Metheny · 1987
- 6Pat Metheny Group · solo by Pat Metheny · 1989
- 7Pat Metheny Group · solo by Pat Metheny · 1983
- 8Pat Metheny, Dave Holland and Roy Haynes · solo by Pat Metheny · 1990
- 9Pat Metheny and Ornette Coleman · solo by Pat Metheny · 1986
- 10Pat Metheny Group · solo by Pat Metheny · 2005
The sound
Metheny's sound is instantly recognizable: a dark, round tone with the treble rolled off, spread wide by stereo delay and chorus so each note seems to float. He phrases like a horn player, with long lines, smeared slides and lots of legato, and he rarely plays a lick for its own sake. His melodies are bright and folk-like, but his harmony comes from bebop and Ornette Coleman's free logic. The Roland guitar synth gives him a trumpet-like lead voice, and he moves easily between steel-string acoustic, 12-string, baritone and his many-necked Pikasso.
- Gibson ES-175 (guitar) His natural-finish archtop, used from his early career until about 1995.
- Ibanez PM signature series (guitar) Ibanez archtops he has played since a 1978 tour of Japan, which later became his main electric.
- Roland GR-300 guitar synthesizer (effect) The source of his soaring, horn-like lead voice on Are You Going with Me? and countless live solos.
- Pikasso I (Linda Manzer) (guitar) A custom 42-string acoustic with several necks and sympathetic string sets, built by luthier Linda Manzer.
- Electric 12-string (guitar) Used on Bright Size Life and elsewhere. He was an early user of the 12-string in jazz.
- Synclavier (effect) A digital synthesizer system he played from the guitar on early-1980s Group records such as Offramp.
- Gibson ES-140 3/4 (guitar) His first guitar, which he got at age 12.
Covers
- Round Trip / Broadway Blues, originally by Ornette Coleman An early sign of his love for Coleman, played with a light trio touch.
- Solar, originally by Miles Davis He treats the familiar changes as an open field for long, winding lines.
- All the Things You Are, originally by Jerome Kern A classic standard played with plenty of swing and no nostalgia.
- The Sound of Silence, originally by Simon & Garfunkel A hushed solo baritone-guitar version that stays close to the song's melancholy.
- And I Love Her, originally by The Beatles A thank-you to the band that made him pick up the guitar.
- Alfie, originally by Burt Bacharach and Hal David He keeps Bacharach's winding chords and lets the melody breathe.
Timeline
- 1954 Born August 12 in Lee's Summit, Missouri
- 1964 Seeing the Beatles on TV pushes him from trumpet to guitar
- 1974 Joins Gary Burton's band
- 1976 Debut album Bright Size Life, with Jaco Pastorius, on ECM
- 1977 Founds the Pat Metheny Group with Lyle Mays
- 1983 Offramp wins the Group's first Grammy
- 1986 Releases Song X with Ornette Coleman
- 2005 The Way Up, the Group's final studio album
- 2010 Orchestrion tour with mechanically played instruments
- 2018 Named an NEA Jazz Master
Facts
- He has won 20 Grammy Awards, and he is the only person to have won them in 10 different categories.
- He first played trumpet, like his father and grandfather.
- His first guitar was a three-quarter-size Gibson ES-140, which he got at 12.
- Guitarist Attila Zoller introduced him to Jim Hall and Ron Carter when he was about 15.
- He taught at the University of Miami and at Berklee while still very young.
- His Pikasso guitar, built by Linda Manzer, has 42 strings.
- For Orchestrion he played a stage full of acoustic instruments that were mechanically triggered from his guitar.
- He played on David Bowie's 1985 song This Is Not America.
- He lived in Brazil for a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
- He topped the DownBeat Readers' Poll for guitarist many times, including every year from 2007 to 2016.